The Rodgers family, among Fort Collins’ so-called hidden homeless population, travels along Magnolia Street on a day last month. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

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About this series

A coalition of civic and business leaders, along with the city of Fort Collins, this summer began devising a plan to end homelessness in the city in 10 years. Called Homeward 2020, the effort is an ambitious plan designed to end homelessness by finding people homes and then helping them stay in them. The Coloradoan decided to take a detailed look at the state of homelessness in the city, past efforts to fight the problem and the agencies that provide assistance. We sent reporters and photographers out to spend a day with people who are homeless and traveled to Denver and Grand Junction to see how other cities are addressing the issues. In this 3-day series we’ll share what we’ve learned.

Monday:

> A look at the day in the life of a chronic homeless man and a hidden homeless family.

> Bryce Hach: From science teacher to homelessness abolitionist

Coming Tuesday:

> Homelessness costs everyone in the community, even if there’s no specific tax or line-item to cover it.

> One man beats his addictions and finds a new life with Christ.

> Sue Beck-Ferkiss: Fighting homelessness $273 at a time

More

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Fort Collins has struggled with homelessness for decades.

We’ve built day shelters, held fundraising walks, collected shoes and clothing and agonized over the deaths of men who freeze to death on the street. We’ve created agencies and charities and engaged the faith community. We’ve written news stories and held forums and discussed the situation.

And still the number of homeless has risen.

We’ve spent millions on health care and jail cells and policing. We’ve ripped out bushes so people can’t sleep under them, altered showering policies at community centers and counted the number of people sleeping on the streets. We’ve passed laws banning camping and sent police to write tickets that will likely be ignored.

And still the number of homeless has risen.

In Larimer County, there are more than 140 government agencies, charities, churches and other organizations helping out the homeless and those in danger of becoming so.

The most recent census of homeless residents in Fort Collins found an estimated 518 homeless people in Fort Collins, with an additional 617 people at risk for becoming homeless. But the study is generally believed to have significantly undercounted that population, in large part because a survey earlier this year found 808 homeless children alone were attending school in Fort Collins.

Now, a group of civic, business and government leaders are advocating what to some seems like a radical solution: Give the homeless homes.

“We need to leave behind all of the old-school ideas that have not gotten the job done,” said Phillip Mangano, former executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

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Mangano got his start working on homelessness when he worked in soup kitchens and shelters in Boston three decades ago. He said that kind of thing offers a tangible sense of helping — a meal given, a bed offered — but did little to actually help end homelessness. Mangano said the way people approach other problems has changed dramatically over the past 30 years but aiding the homeless hasn’t.

“If 30 years later, the best we can do for our homeless neighbors is the same thing we have been doing for three decades, shame on us,” Mangano said. “We’ve proven that you can go beyond shelters and people sleeping on the street. You can effectively end homelessness.”

Taking a new approach

The new group working in Fort Collins calls itself Homeward 2020, dedicated to ending homelessness in the next 10 years. Instead of approaching homelessness as a social challenge, the group has come to believe that a business and civic approach is needed to radically change things.

“One thing that we’ve learned over the last 30 years ... is that if good intentions, well-meaning programs and humanitarian gestures could end homelessness, it would have been history decades ago. We have mustered all of these on the front lines to homelessness for years and years. What we saw in that was the numbers of people experiencing homelessness only increased,” Mangano said. “It’s just a reality. That’s what happened.”

Downtown business owners are still learning about Homeward 2020 but believe it’s a step in the right direction, from an economic and humanitarian perspective.

“We’re not looking to have a homogeneous place. Having a mix of everything is good; we just want it so everyone feels safe to enjoy the ambience and the business that goes along with that,” said Ellen Zibell, owner of The Perennial Gardener and Sense of Place in Old Town.

Ryan Houdek owns two downtown restaurants, one that abuts Jefferson Park, but he said the homeless have not been an issue, nor have they caused any problems for his customers.

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“I want homelessness to go away for the dignity of people more so than at a business level,” Houdek said.

Fort Collins is one of many cities across the country and across Colorado struggling with the issue.

Grand Junction drew statewide attention after three police officers were fired for vandalizing homeless camps in May, and others were investigated for pepper-spraying a building frequented by homeless people.

But many in the isolated Western Slope city say the incidents are finally getting people to talk about the breadth of homelessness in the Grand Valley.

Playing with his dog, Marshmallow, on the edge of Whitman Park — known by many locals as the “Homeless Park” near the heart of downtown Grand Junction — Ian Lafferty said he once spent some time living on Grand Junction’s streets but got lucky when his brother bought a house and invited him to room there.

Grand Valley residents, he said, like to deny homelessness exists there and look the other way when homeless people ask for spare change.

“I’ve been in the position to fly some signs before, and they pretend they don’t see you,” he said.

The city is just now beginning to address the problem as it makes the first steps to create a 10-year plan to alleviate homelessness, similar to the one Fort Collins is adopting.

Denver has had such a plan in place for more than five years, as Mayor John Hickenlooper, the Denver Rescue Mission and a host of churches and other organizations created a network of community support for homeless people called Denver’s Road Home.

In addition to the broad range of services to the homeless provided by the Denver Rescue Mission, which operates a rehabilitation program on a farm north of Fort Collins, volunteers from many dozens of religious organizations mentor nearly 800 families annually, often providing a first month’s rent and helping them develop the skills they need to stay off the streets.

“It’s kind of a magic thing, but the interesting thing is that what we’re seeing is the power of relationships and not seeing the poor as just (being) a social problem,” said John Reeverts, director of the Denver Leadership Foundation, which helped Hickenlooper develop the Denver Mayor’s Homeless Initiative from its inception.

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The program has cut homelessness in Denver by 60 percent and has reduced panhandling in downtown Denver by 90 percent, Hickenlooper said.

Tip of the iceberg

While panhandlers are sometimes the most visible face of homelessness, they represent the tip of the real problem, according to experts.

Sister Mary Alice Murphy has spent more than 25 years aiding the poverty-stricken in Fort Collins but said because it’s the Choice City, “you don’t hear about the problem.”

True homeless are not those holding signs at off-ramps, Murphy said. They are hidden among us and often prefer to remain that way.

“If you’re poor in an affluent area, it’s easy to ignore it and think the problem is with you,” she said.

According to the most recent study, the vast majority of homeless people in Fort Collins are actually the “hidden homeless” — people who couch surf among friends and relatives, sometimes sleeping in their cars, sometimes sleeping in cheap motels. Unlike the chronic homeless, experts say, the hidden homeless often drift in and out of stable living situations as relationships sour, jobs get lost and debt mounts.

Making Homeward 2020 work will require a realignment of how many services are provided in the city, said executive director Bryce Hach. That means providing services more effectively to both the chronic homeless and the hidden homeless. He said the chronic homeless represent about 10 percent of the homeless population but consume about 50 percent of the services provided to all homeless.

Because the two groups are so different in the root causes of their homelessness, Hach said, the services need to be adjusted to reflect that. But at the same time, he said, being homeless for whatever reason makes day-to-day survival the top priority — not looking for jobs, not dealing with substance abuse, not addressing mental-health problems, not doing more than staying alive.

He said the 10-year plan, which is still being drafted, focuses existing services into ending homelessness. He said that doesn’t necessarily mean additional money will be spent, only that it will be put to more constructive use.

“These are human beings who are struggling mightily in the community where they are a member,” Hach said.